The 5th Annual Local Currency Bonds and Financial Sector Development Workshop, hosted by AFMI and the African Development Bank (AfDB) will be held on 15-16 December 2016, at the AfDB's CCIA Building in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. MFW4A spoke to Cédric Achille Mbeng Mezui, AFMI Coordinator, to find out more about their flagship event.

Q1: What is the rationale behind this Annual workshop, and its importance?

AFMD is a comprehensive database on African domestic bond markets, with a focus on treasury bills and bonds. AFMD includes data on the bond markets of 41 countries provided by AFMI's network of Liaison Officers, who are officials of their respective central banks. The data provided allows for a comparison across countries for both investors and issuers. The annual workshop provides AFMI's liaison officers the opportunity to get together and discuss developments in their various markets, exchange ideas as well as discuss how to improve the AFMD. The workshop will also be an opportunity for for the officers to further hone in their data collection skills, and to improve the quality whilst also increasing the amount of data collected in all of AfDB's Regional Member Countries.

This year we will also present the African Domestic Bond Fund (ADBF), the multi-jurisdictional first fixed income exchange-traded fund (ETF) in Africa. The AfDB Board approved a seed investment of USD 25 million in the ADBF on 7th December 2016. We will be presenting ADBF with a view to identifying potential investors.

Q2: Give us a brief overview of the workshop

The event will bring together more than 300 delegates including Central Bank Governors, Ministries of Finances, bank CEOs, pension funds, as well as over 60 liaison officers covering the debt market, pension, insurance, banks, and Senior Management of the AfDB. This year, we are expecting the workshop to spur interest and commitments from potential investors for the African Domestic Bond Fund (ADBF).

As a brief background, the ADBF was conceived as an integral part of AFMI, with the objective of contributing to the development of local debt markets in Africa, through investing in local currency-denominated debt. The ADBF coincidentally will be topic in the first session of Day 1, and this is where we are working to create awareness around the Fund. We are very excited about the ADBF, given its recent approval by the Board of Governors of the AfDB on 7th December 2016.

The second session will be a panel discussion with senior officials including, Honourable Minister Mr. Thierry Tanoh, CEO of the Mauritius Stock Exchange, Mr. Sunil Benimadhu, AfDB Finance Vice President, Mr. Charles Boamah, Representative of BCEAO, Governor M. Antoine Traore and the representative of the CEO of AfricaRe, Mr Kone Seydou. The aim of the session is to highlight the importance of local currency bond markets development, and how the Bond Fund could impact the development of the Bond Markets in Africa.

The third session aims to identify how investors can invest in the ADBF, and to address different issues related to the Fund, including access, transaction costs, risk/return asymmetry, liquidity and regulation. This session will comprise of a mix of panelists from the private sector, potential investors, including AfDB's Financial Sector Development Department Director, Mr Stefan Nalletamby, CEO of MCB Capital, Mr. Rony Lam, CEO Africa Re Representative - Director of Finance and Accounts, Mr Kone Seydou, Chair of the Nigerian Pension Funds Association, Mr David Uduanu, and Managing Director, Head of Africa- Public Sector - Citibank London, Mr Peter Sullivan.

Day two will comprise of two closed thematic workshops. In the first session, there will be a presentation on AFMI as well as a presentation on the African Markets Database (AFMD). In the second thematic workshop of the day, the AfDB's Statistics Department, ESTA, will present the Open Data Platform, followed by a presentation of AFMI's Data portal and website.

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